That was an election!

It’s a little over a week since the election and I’d intended to write this post sooner before by reactions to the result have faded. Hopefully I haven’t left it too long.

I always find it useful to think in lists of five so what are my five takeaways from the result which, in case anyone’s forgotten, was a Labour landslide and 72 seats for the Lib Dems including my own.

• there was a general mood of get the Tories out and a considerable sense of relief when that happened. Fact is that the Tories really did become the nasty party and many traditional voters in ‘middle England’ looked at it, decided that it was no longer for them and voted with their feet. Some voted Reform but most voted Lib Dem.
• Reform is a worry. It’s not a political party as we know it, it’s a private company owned by Nigel Farage, so there’s little democracy within it. It does attract the ‘fruit cakes and loonies’ as David Cameron said about UKIP but it’s gotten itself a veneer of respectability enhanced by the comments of some on the right of the Tory party. A friend of mine used to refer to UKIP as the BNP in blazers. Methinks Reform is the same.
• Labour’s got an opportunity to be more radical than it set out in its manifesto. It’s got a big fat majority and can be confident of a five year run as the Government. It should move quickly with more progressive policies on Climate Change, Europe, immigration and better funding of public services. Mr Starmer must not look at himself in four years time and say that he’d wished he’d been bolder.
• the Lib Dems can be the real opposition. They can catalyse the above and they can act as Labour’s progressive conscience. And if the Tories and Reform make too many unpleasant right wing noises they can stand firm and ensure that Labour stays the course.
• Histon’s come a long way since 2005. That’s when I first stood, and was elected, as a county councillor. In those days it seemed to be just Jonathon Chatfield and I fighting the good fight. I remained a councillor until 2021 when I handed over to Ros Hathorn who took my 50% plus of the vote and increased it. Along the way we elected three Lib Dem district councillors (Martin Cahn, Pippa Heyling and Steve Hunt) in 2018 and re-elected Martin and Pippa along with Sunita Hansraj in 2022. As a community we voted over 70% remain so I guess it’s perfectly natural now that we’ve got a Lib Dem MP. I’m confident that Ian Sollom will do a great job.

In terms of politics I don’t do much now but I do tend to give advice from the side-lines. Otherwise I’m just a deliverer and I allow our local team to store 60 plus stake-boards in the roof of my garage.

Pippa Heyling was also elected as an MP so she’ll be standing down as a district councillor some time in the not too distant future and that’ll mean a by-election. Then we’ve got to get Ros re-elected next year. It won’t stop!